Montessori Monday – Inexpensive and DIY Sandpaper Letters

Montessori-School-Quality Sandpaper Letters (Photo from To the Lesson!)

Sandpaper letters are one of the most commonly heard-of Montessori materials. My son absolutely loved them (Learning to Read Can Be Just a Fun Game). Montessori schools need to buy high-quality sandpaper letters (photo from To the Lesson!), but you can purchase inexpensive sandpaper letters or make your own for home use.

Where to Purchase Inexpensive Sandpaper Letters

If you’d like to purchase sandpaper letters for home use, there are a number of inexpensive options:

eBay

Montessori Outlet

Alison’s Montessori

Kid Advance

Here’s a more thorough list of Montessori material suppliers along with comments from parents who purchased from various companies: Where to Buy Montessori Materials.

How to Make Your Own Sandpaper Letters

If you’re crafty or enjoy DIY projects, you might like to make your own sandpaper letters. There are some great tutorials available:

There are patterns and directions for making your own sandpaper letters (in addition to many other Montessori materials) in the book Teaching Montessori in the Home: Pre-School Years: The Pre-School Years by Elizabeth G. Hainstock.

D’Nealian Style Sandpaper Letters (Photo from A Bohemian Education)

A Bohemian Education used sandpaper and MDF boards for Sandpaper Letters.

Making Montessori Ours has thorough instructions and links to templates for making wooden D’Nealian sandpaper letters and cursive sandpaper letters.

Montessori Mom has a free sandpaper letter printout: Free Montessori Sandpaper Letters Printout.

Here’s a tutorial from Beautiful Sun Montessori for making handmade wooden sandpaper letters: Sandpaper Letters Tutorial.

Jojoebi has directions for making wooden sandpaper letters. Sandpaper Letters.

The Accidental Crafter has DIY Montessori Sand Paper Letters and Numbers using cardstock and colored cardboard.

Here are directions from Maybe Montessori for making attractive yet inexpensive sandpaper letters from masonite: Sandpaper Letters.

Little Tiger Growing Up made an attractive set of DIY Sandpaper Letters with sandpaper and colored cardboard.

Kaisu Parents has directions for making sandpaper letters from vanguard paper/manila card. Do It Yourself : Alphabet Cards (1) -Montessori Sandpaper Letters.

There are some basic directions for making sandpaper letters at Family Education:   Sandpaper Letters.

How to make sandpaper letters from Momtessori: Do I need any white out for this? {Sandpaper letters}.

Raising Genius Fish has the idea of using smooth card stock and card stock with a glitter finish: DIY Tactile Letters.

ABC Jesus Loves Me has both instructions and templates for making sandpaper letters (and numerals).

Montessori Materials has sandpaper letter templates.

Activity Village has letter templates.

Walk Beside Me has a D’Nealian template with lower-case letters (and numerals).

At Totally Tots, Julie from the Adventures of Bear showed how to make Simple Sandpaper Letters that used cardstock, sand, and glue rather than cutting letters from sandpaper.

Glitter Glue Letters (Photo from Kingdom of the Pink Princesses)

Kingdom of the Pink Princesses made Glitter Glue Letters that can be prepared easily in any language.

The Moffat Girls made DIY Montessori Sandpaper Letters with felt on wooden discs.

Some alternatives to sandpaper letters from Momtessori: This is the next best thing …

Sandpaper Letter Presentations and Ideas

Inexpensive Sandpaper Letters

How to introduce sandpaper letters, including a video on introducing sandpaper letters:  How to Teach Concepts and Vocabulary to Your Preschooler Using the Three-Period Lesson (my post and a Montessori Primary Guide video)

In What Order Should You Introduce Letters to Your Preschooler? (another post of mine)

Here’s a helpful post and video from Momtessori on how to pronounce the phonetic sound for each letter: You want me to do what?

Another video: “Preschool Montessori Sand Paper Letters – Introducing Sounds of Letters”

Sandpaper Letter with Salt Tray (Photo from Peaceful Parenting)

Peaceful Parenting has a number of extensions for sandpaper letters and phonetic sounds: On the Road to Reading: Eight Months of Montessori Literacy Work.

To the Lesson! has a post with helpful ideas for Record-Keeping for Sandpaper Letters.

Here’s an Associated Content article by Andrea Coventry with sandpaper letter extensions: Games to Play with the Montessori Sandpaper Letters.

No Time for Flash Cards has Sandpaper Letter Tracing, a fun extension.

Montessori Monday Link-Up

If you have some Montessori activity trays/lessons to share, please link up below. Please also place the Montessori Monday button (using the code from the right sidebar) in your post or put a link back to this post.

My co-host, Nicole, at One Hook Wonder is still on a trip this morning, but she has a lot of Montessori activities in her archives!

Thanks for participating! (Note: If you have a giveaway on your blog, please add it to my Family-Friendly Giveaway Linky Page – and check out all the great Christmas gift giveaways!)

Linked to AfterSchool Linky Party, Living Life Intentionally Linky Party, Pinterest Tuesday, The Mommy Club Resources and Solutions at Milk and Cuddles and Crystal & Co. , Thrifty Thursday, Preschool Corner, Show-and-Share Saturday, Link & Learn, and The Sunday Showcase at Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas and Classified: Mom.

Related posts:

1. In What Order Should You Introduce Letters to Your Preschooler?
2. How to Teach Concepts and Vocabulary to Your Preschooler Using the Three-Period Lesson
3. Montessori Monday – DIY Bead Bars
4. Montessori Monday – DIY Cards and Counters
5. Montessori Monday – DIY Geometric Shapes